Magnitude 6.4 – NORTHWESTERN IRAN – August 11, 2012

This is the ground motion recorded in New England from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Iran.

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake can be very bad if it occurs in an unfortunate location. This earthquake in Iran occurred in a region with structures that are highly vulnerable to earthquake shaking: adobe block and unreinforced brick.

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake releases only about 0.001 times the amount of energy released by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake (such as the Japan mega-quake of 2011), and about 8 times as much energy released by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake (such as the Virginia earthquake of 2011).